Tiffany Zhong (Ep. 42): Everyone’s Got a Perspective

06 Apr Tiffany Zhong (Ep. 42): Everyone’s Got a Perspective

The Wall Street Journal called Tiffany Zhong Venture Capital’s Teenage Analyst. At 21, she’s worked at Product Hunt, sourced consumer investments, and is the founder of Zebra Intelligence, a consulting firm for brands trying to understand Gen Z. Her journey starts on Twitter where as a teenager she engaged prominent VCs and tech founders, asking them about their businesses and sharing her views on apps and products. Tiffany gives us both a networking and Twitter 101 as she shares the importance of (digital) emotional intelligence, leading with the question “how can I be helpful” and how, irrespective of your age, everyone has at least one thing they can bring to a conversation: Perspective. Tiffany dropped out of Berkeley after a year and we discuss different learning methods, the importance of college, and how she feels about the lack of a safety net in a degree. Tiffany discusses college students and teens – the “side hustle generation,” deft at building e-commerce companies and leveraging their social followings to make money. We also discuss the Gen Z stereotypes of attention, entitlement, and anxiety – and how Gen X’ers should not call Lil Pump, Little Pump.

Building relationships on Twitter

“Twitter honestly taught me a lot around emotional intelligence and talking to people, which is very ironic because you are behind a screen… was I worried that I was being annoying?…But i also looked for a lot of different signals: If they liked my tweet, if they did this, did that… and that would give me validation to keep going.”

Politely butting in on Twitter has its rewards

“Instead of just trying to Tweet out into the Ether…you should try to jump into conversations instead.”

And the surprising back and forth from her Tweets

What you are going to give out to the world or to Twitter, is what you are gonna get back.

Old school values in new school verticals

I think the only skill you need is to be able to think very creatively and use your resources well…if you are able to write and sell, you can get very far in life in general. That is what i have learned over the years.